People
Importing from a spreadsheet
Bring a whole school in from Excel — templates, every column explained, and how errors are shown.
On this page
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Schools already keep their people in spreadsheets. Alviyora reads those spreadsheets rather than asking you to retype them — our own template, or the lists your school already exports from SA-SAMS — and it checks every row and shows you the problems before it writes anything.
There are five imports:
| Import | Where | What it creates |
|---|---|---|
| Learners | Learners → Bulk Upload | Learners, and optionally their guardians, linked |
| Guardians | Learners → Bulk Upload Guardians | Guardians, linked to learners who already exist |
| Staff | Staff → Bulk Upload | Staff with roles, and their teaching subjects |
| Teacher assignments | Academics → Teacher Assignments → Bulk Upload | Which teacher takes which subject in which grade |
| Timetables | Timetable → Class / Exam | A class’s week, or an exam schedule |
How every import works
Importing from SA-SAMS
Export your three lists from SA-SAMS — the HR list, the parent list and the learner list — and upload them as they are. Alviyora reads SA-SAMS’s own headings, steps over the school name and EMIS number printed above them, and reads its dates the way SA-SAMS writes them.
SA-SAMS doesn’t say which parent belongs to which learner, so the order matters: parents before learners.
The learner template
Six columns are required. An email is not — a learner without one is invited through their parent, and one nobody can reach is still created and listed for you. The Guardian block is worth filling in either way: it creates the parent account and links it in the same pass.
| Column | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| First Name | Yes | |
| Last Name | Yes | |
| Date of Birth | Yes | YYYY-MM-DD is safest |
| Gender | Yes | Male, Female or Other |
| Grade | Yes | Must match a grade you created |
| Section | The class within the grade. Leave blank if the grade has none | |
| ID Number | Yes | An ID or passport number |
| Where the invitation goes. Without one, it goes to a parent | ||
| Phone Number | ||
| Home Language | ||
| Guardian First Name | Required if the guardian’s last name, phone or email is filled | |
| Guardian Last Name | Required if the guardian’s first name, phone or email is filled | |
| Guardian ID Number | How siblings are matched — see below. On its own, with no other guardian column, it links a parent already in Alviyora | |
| Guardian Phone | The number SMS goes to | |
| Guardian Email | ||
| Guardian Relationship | mother, father, guardian, stepmother, stepfather, grandparent, other | |
| Second Guardian ID Number | A second parent already in Alviyora — their ID, passport or cell number | |
| Emergency Contact Name | ||
| Emergency Contact Phone | Used for SMS if no guardian number exists | |
| Home Address | ||
| Previous School | ||
| Medical Aid Number | ||
| Allergies |
The staff template
| Column | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| First Name | Yes | |
| Last Name | Yes | |
| Their login. Without one, they sign in with a username and are invited by SMS | ||
| Phone Number | ||
| Roles | Yes | One or more, separated by ; or , — e.g. Teacher or Admin; Teacher |
| Title | Mr, Mrs, Ms, Dr | |
| ID Number | Yes | An ID or passport number |
| Date of Birth | Required when the row includes the Teacher role | |
| Gender | Required when the row includes the Teacher role | |
| Employee Number | ||
| Qualification | ||
| Subjects | Subjects they teach, separated by ; or , | |
| Emergency Contact Name | ||
| Emergency Contact Phone | ||
| Home Address | ||
| Start Date |
Role names must match your school’s roles — including any custom ones. Teacher, Admin, Principal, Bursar, whatever you have created.
The guardian template
Use this when the learners are already in the system and you are adding parents afterwards — or before the learners, so the learner upload can link them.
| Column | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| First Name | Yes | |
| Last Name | Yes | |
| Two parents sharing one email: the first keeps it, the second is invited by SMS | ||
| Phone Number | ||
| ID Number | An ID or passport number. It’s what they confirm when they accept, and how learners link to them | |
| Learner ID Numbers | One or more learner ID numbers, separated by ; or , — this is what links them | |
| Relationship | mother, father, guardian, stepmother, stepfather, grandparent, other | |
| Title | ||
| Gender | ||
| Date of Birth | ||
| Occupation | ||
| Work Phone | ||
| Home Address |
Learner ID Numbers is how a guardian reaches their children, so the learners must already have ID numbers on file. If they aren’t uploaded yet, upload the guardians first and link them from the learner upload instead.
Phone numbers
Numbers are normalised as they are read, against your school’s country. A local
number typed the way people say it — 071 123 4567 — is understood. A number that
cannot be parsed at all is flagged on its row rather than saved, because a broken
number costs money at the SMS gateway and delivers nothing.
What happens on import
- Accounts are created without a password. Someone with no email of their own gets a username instead.
- Everyone is sent an invitation — by email, or by SMS when there is only a cell number. A learner without an email is invited through their parent, so the parent sets the account up. You don’t hand anything out, and no password is generated for anyone — see below.
- If an invitation email can’t be sent and there is a phone number on file, the link goes by SMS instead. Every SMS invitation is billed like any other SMS your school sends.
- Anyone with no email or cell number is still created, and listed on the finished screen and in Download Results. Add a way to reach them on their profile, or use Reset Password to give them a temporary one.
- Existing people are matched, not duplicated. A guardian ID number already in the system links to that guardian rather than making a second one.
- The whole import is one entry in the Activity Log — one line reading “imported 340 learners”, not 340 lines.
What the invited person does
The invitation has one link, which works for 7 days.
Download Results on the finished screen saves a spreadsheet of everyone who was created, with their usernames, and anyone who still needs a way in, for your records.